This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

By Ta-Nehisi Coates

The White House is usually quite good at keeping a muzzle on the media after one of its off-the-record sessions with President Obama and senior members of his administration.
But not this week.

A group of black bloggers and journalists from outlets like Essence and BET were invited to the White House on Monday for a half-day of policy briefings by the president's advisers. The White House provided the journalists with an agenda that spelled out the ground rules: the first half of their briefings was to be on background, meaning they could report any information they learned but not attribute it to any specific official; the second half was off the record entirely.

Still, that did not stop bloggers from writing about the event and, in one case, posting a video of the president's remarks to the group.